Beer: Reviews & Ratings

l - pale with minimal headS - Like burnt plasticT - Like burnt plastic, residual malt sweetness, and adjuncts. F- Very light, almost watery.O - This is the only 6-pack that I've ever bought where I couldn't finish it. I have a couple full bottles as a display for this, hopefully, one-time adventure from Newcastle. (320 characters)

Extremely well-balanced pale ale. Excellent pairing of hops and malt, just the right amount of each. A tinge of pineapple. Some grainy notes. A little bit of herbs.

Smooth finish. Nice light-to-medium mouthfeel.

Overall, a great session beer and a nice change of pace. I've had a lot of hop and malt monsters lately so I enjoyed something that was more easy going but still tasty and definitely balanced. (499 characters)

A: Thin white head that dissipates quickly. Copper color.S: Pale malts. Caramel. Nutty. Slight honey.T: Similar to Newcastle Brown except smoother and lighter. Upfront there are biscuit malts with some pale malts. Caramel notes throughout. Some grassy hop that tastes kind of like tea leaves. Finish is sweet and slightly fruity.M: Light bodied. Easy drinking. Refreshing especially after being out in the sunshine all day.O: A decent session beer worth drinking. Not amazing by any means but if you like the one and only then its a good beer to get into. I wasn't begging for another but I will definitely finish off the case I bought. (640 characters)

Pours a copper color with a very small white head that leaves some lacing. The aroma is of caramel and hops. Tasted pretty much like the smell suggests with toasted malt as well. Overall, surprised that it was pretty good as I do like their "Brown Ale" also and fairly smooth to drink. (285 characters)

A: Pours a clear copper color. The head is a one finger offwhite shade. In particular, I enjoy how creamy it looks topping this brew off. As it recedes, a semi-solid ring of lacing is left behind.

S: Some caramel sweetness augments a slight ping of fruit esters. Hops are (sadly) almost imperceptible, but this isn't turribly fresh, either. It smells okay. Pretty middle of the road, though.

T: The flavor to me seems a bit nuttier than what the aroma suggested. Mainly, though, it's still sodden with caramel and faint fruity esters on the opening. I can even pick up slight chocolate at times. It really dries up on the finish, with only a slight tea leaf note to break up the monotony. Not bad.

M: There's a dry note on the back end that makes me think of Guinness. Or Bass. This creates good drinkability at the cost of gutted palate duration. Ah well, the latter doesn't really mean much considering what this is. It's easy to drink.

O: It's alright, I guess. Come to think of it, this lived up to my expectations perfectly - by being completely average in almost all aspects. Among macros, I've had FAR worse. (1,155 characters)

Appearance – Served a medium amber colored brew with a one finger white head. The head fades relatively quickly leaving only a lighter level of lace on the sides of the glass

Smell - The aroma is mainly of a malty and bready aroma. Mixed with these are some sweeter caramel as well as some lighter fruit notes of apple.

Taste – The taste begins with a bready and biscuit malt flavor mixed with a sweet caramel flavor upfront. Some light roasted malt flavors develop more toward the middle, only to fade more toward the end. As the light roasted flavors come and go so too comes some fruity flavor of an apple and pear taste. These stay very light and only aid in enhancing the bready and biscuit flavors and serve as a backdrop to the caramel. In the end a light herbal hop flavor comes to the tongue, leaving a rather crisp and smooth flavor on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is rather crisp and on thinner side with a medium to slightly lower level of carbonation. A bit more carbonation may have been slightly better for accentuating the crisp taste of the brew, but overall it was a decent feel as the thinner body made it quite refreshing.

Appearance: rich golden hue with a haze-free body and a pretty strong effervescence. Head is a half-finger of creamy ivory foam. Not bad!

Smell: subdued malty aroma with a fair helping of caramel character. A bit light, but nice.

Taste: nice caramel-malt flavor with a light but present bitterness; it's definitely tipped more to the malty side of the spectrum. This beer is almost a caramel mild in its lightness and balance. Still, the overall effect is working for me.

O: May be a bit easier on the American drinker than the Brown offering. I read that the original Newcastle Brown was considered a failure by the formulator because he he'd been attempting to recreate Bass Pale Ale. This is much closer to Bass but I'd say a smidge mellower. (572 characters)

Mouthfeel: Yes it is clean and short on the aftertaste, moderate carbonation,

To the Point: they are correct and honest in their description. How many times a company says, ‘full bodied, big time hops or malts, triple hopped’ … sure, sure, sure … you buy it and try it and it tastes light bodied and thin on the flavor side.

If you want simple, fairly clean, light on the flavors, easy to drink, and personally it is not that bad tasting. (882 characters)

A - Pours a dark gold/light amber color, with half a finger of head, medium lacing.S - Some baking flour, lager yeast, floral hops, and a little fresh cut grass.T - This tastes and drinks much more like a lager than a pale ale, with just a few more hops, and some light fresh baked bread kinda malt.M - Clean and smooth, nice finish for refreshment.O - While not the worst, this is decently sessionable with some moderate flavors that make for a good hoppy lager, but its far off from a pale ale. (532 characters)

Poured a half finger of head on a clear, dark copper colored body.The aroma is a good, if faint, grain and malt smell.The taste is fairly bland. A touch of sweetness.The texture is too fizzy with a crisp texture.At 4.8% and no real flavor you could go to town on these and not be offended. (293 characters)

Lightly toasty and very floral. Some harvest fruit and an ester reminiscent of tutti frutti. Fresh and minty nose. The hops that carry that are of that disposition.

Weaker in the flavor, after a very mild aroma. Steeped grains gather some sweeter notes alongside that light toast. A little soapy, too. Herbal hops have a spearmint freshness. Almost a note of cilantro. Somewhat grassy. Faint artificial peach.

Lightly carbonated. Hard to conjure up a burp. Reasonably easy to take down. The body is not particularly smooth, but it's at the right viscosity.

Newcastle is not where to turn for an authentic and delicious session pale. Look elsewhere. This one misses the mark. (789 characters)

A: Pours a crystal clear medium copper in color with moderate amounts of visible carbonation and some light amber highlights. The beer has a finger tall frothy off-white head that reduces to a thin film covering the entire surface of the beer with a slightly thicker ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Light to moderate aromas of pale and biscuit malts along with a lightly fruity yeast and just a touch teas leaves.

T: Upfront there are light to moderate flavors of biscuit malts with just a hint of the pale malts. Light notes of fruity yeasts and hints of tea leaves (likely from an herbal/earthy hop). Light amounts of bitterness which fades quickly.

M: Just heavier than light bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly thin/watery.

O: Very easy to drink and definitely one that could be a session beer - reminds me of afternoons in pubs when visiting London. Not one I would go out of my way to find again but certainly one I would enjoy if I came across it in a bar again. (1,075 characters)

Like other reviewers this beer gets slightly better as it warms. And even with one glass tasting notes could be all over the map but never up and to the right.

A- Nice color, but the head doesn't last. 2nd try did lace well. Lots of large bubbles in fast fade head. Lots of bubbles in the body.

S- Smells sweet and malty. Not much going on. A little industrial stink, a touch staleness.

T- Thin. Better taste than smell. changes over time and temperature. Malt mostly, a bit of tingle, feel the bubbles, but not much hops. Better than their brown ale, but I am not a Newcastle fan. I am not a Scotch Ale fan. Stick to whiskey mates! With the better scotch ales, they need to breathe and warm.

M- Feel is refreshing. OK in a pinch. Lots of bubbles. Easy going.

This ale is not exciting. OK / average. No real subtlety or hop flavor, no big flavor arc as with a real pale ale like Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale. Would drink only if everything else was bud. (961 characters)

I tasted this beer previously at a much colder temperature and found that I did not care for it very much. This time I waited until it warmed to around 52-54 degrees and was pleased to find that characteristics were a bit more appealing.

A- The color is a very nice dark copper color, perfectly clear with large bubbles in the head. It seems a bit dark for a pale ale on first glance. The small head did not last long and disappeared very quickly. Left no lacing.

S- Not much going on here, some toasted malt smells and a very faint hop aroma. Smells sweet.

T- Same as the smell really. Not much going on. Mostly a sweet malty beer with barely any bitterness or hop character. Not too sweet however, with just barely enough dryness coming through to make it palatable.

M- This is where this beer comes through and shares similarities with the more widely enjoyed Newcastle Brown Ale. It has about the same mouthfeel- delightfully thin and easy to drink with not too much or too little carbonation. Could be quite refreshing on a hot day.

Overall, this beer is not bad, its just nothing exciting. It is a bit unbalanced for the style, with too much sweetness and not enough hops to counteract the malts. I will be able to finish the six pack, but won't seek this one out in the future. (1,293 characters)

355ml Bottle: best before 30 Apr 2013, opened on 12 Apr 2013 and poured into an Abbot Ale glass tankard.

Looked good, light amber going onto copper in body colour, on top a full head of white crowned it off nicely.

I thought this had a malt bias throughout: something I like. The nose had a mild caramel hint within the aroma and that followed along within the mouth flavours. Hops are around giving the beer a balanced feel but this is a semi-sweet brew which fits my taste profile very nicely. (497 characters)

Purchased this brew in a 6 pack at a local grocery. I really like Newcastle Brown, so I was interested in trying this.

Into a traditional pint glass, this brew poured a crystal clear dark yellow to amber. It had a small white head that dissipated rather quickly leaving some lacing down the glass sides. Carbonation looked to be on the "average" or "medium" side.

The initial aromas seemed to be dominated by cider, some sulfur, mild flowery/citrus hops, and very little malt. Initial taste was dominated by sweet malt up front, followed by a cider taste (...to me), ending with some mild hop bitterness. Mouth feel was on the medium side balanced nicely by the carbonation.

Overall, this beer seemed odd to me. I think it's the cider smell and taste that is throwing me off. 5 more bottles to go - we'll see how it "drinks" out. (834 characters)

A 355ml bottle with a BB of April 2013. Picked up a while back from Tesco. Brewed in Tadcaster (presumably at the John Smith's brewery). This is the first time I've come across a beer from the Newcastle brewery that wasn't the Brown. The blurb on the back label goes on about commemorating Archie Jones, one of the creators of Newcastle Brown.

Poured into a straight pint glass. A clear orange-amber colour with decent carbonation. Forms a large head of white foam that lasts for a few minutes before settling as a thin surface layer. Aroma of light caramel malt, mild fruity ale yeast, faint grain and weak stewed leaves. Not much going on.

Tastes of mild caramel malt with a dry finish. Notes of fruity ale yeast, vague caramel, subtle grain and stewed leaves. A rather harsh cardboard hint in the background. Dry, with a slight bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth and tingly, with pleasant carbonation but a somewhat thin body. Rather astringent, with an aftertaste of ale yeast, cardboard and faint caramel malt.

Meh - dull and unimaginitive. Average flavour and aroma, with some off-notes lurking behind the scenes. Doesn't do anything for me; just another lacklustre also-ran. Give it a miss and buy something decent instead. (1,246 characters)